Vestibular migraine screen settings

Updated 2026-11-02

Quick answerVestibular migraine can heighten motion sensitivity. Prefer reduced-motion OS settings, stop autoplay and GIFs, avoid busy parallax sites, and keep brightness steady. These comfort steps do not treat vestibular migraine; follow your clinician’s plan. Keep expectations modest. Adjust intensity to taste.
Not medical advice. Migraine Mode is a screen-comfort tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose or treat disease. When to see a doctor.

Motion first

  1. OS reduce-motion / prefer-reduced-motion.
  2. Disable autoplay videos and animated emoji where possible.
  3. Migraine Mode freeze-motion + autoplay block in Chrome.

Visual load

  1. Darker themes; fewer animated dashboards.
  2. Take breaks before scrolling long feeds.

Good to know

  • Related: /conditions/vestibular-migraine/.
  • Not medical advice.

Why motion matters

  • Research links vestibular migraine with heightened visual motion sensitivity and motion sickness susceptibility.

What software cannot do

  • Fix inner-ear disease.
  • Replace vestibular rehab advice.

FAQ

Should I avoid all screens?

Not necessarily; lowering motion and session length is a practical start — ask your clinician.

Do dark themes help vestibular symptoms?

They mainly cut glare; motion control is the priority here.

Sources

  • Visual motion sensitivity in vestibular migraine. Otology & Neurotology. Link
  • Sensitized rotatory motion perception and increased susceptibility to motion sickness in vestibular migraine. Eur J Neurol, 2021. Link
  • W3C. Understanding WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.3.3: Animation from Interactions. Link
  • W3C. Technique C39: Using the CSS prefers-reduced-motion query to prevent motion. Link

Not a medical device and not medical advice. Migraine Mode is a screen-comfort tool: it does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent migraine or any other condition, and it does not replace a doctor. Its settings are based on studies of light, colour, flicker, patterns and motion; the extension itself has not been clinically tested. When to see a doctor.